On Jun 23, 2005, at 12:45 PM, Ned Freed wrote:
For anyone who was sleeping during the relevant Psych 101 lecture, this is
called the Hawthorne effect.
Damn. I knew there was a famous study that identified this effect, but I
couldn't remember the name.
Doing anything at all gets folk's attention.
The name "Hawthorne Effect" comes from some early work (1927-1932) on organizational measurement done at the Western Electric plant in Hawthorne, Illinois, where management tried to determine optimum levels of factory-floor lighting. Because the employees knew about the study, they responded to each adjustment in light level by increasing productivity.
